In his final column as a Chronicle staff member, John McClain shares some of his favorite...
at the Oilers’ hotel in Buffalo and wondering how the bride and groom recognized his backside from 10 floors up at the Hyatt Regency.
Then I heard him raise his voice and say, “You can take the boy out of Waco, but you can’t take Waco out of the boy. We’re going to a commercial break and see if we can get to the bottom of this. We’ll be back, if the FCC allows us.” So Bum comes in, reaches into a fridge and gets a Budweiser for all of us. Then he sits at the end next to me. I wonder why everyone is smirking at me. Then Bum leans down, takes off his shoes and socks, pushes his chair back and puts his dirty, stinky feet on the table. I took a deep breath, held it and looked at Dale and the others and they were laughing at my rookie mistake. Needless to say, I sat with them the rest of my week in camp.
When I arrived at Comiskey Park for my interview with Veeck, the Sox were out of town. I was escorted to the “Bard’s Room” and waited by myself until Veeck arrived. He carried a telephone with a long extension cord. He shook hands, introduced himself, sat at a table and said, “Young man. I’ll give you all the time you need, but I’ve got some irate customers since we’re not very good, and I take all their calls when they want to complain. I hope you understand. Please be patient.
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